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The Calgary Flames wanted progress this season. What they’ve shown is uncertainty.

Calgary enters the week sitting tied for last in the NHL standings and the frustration is mounting. At 1.67 goals-per-game, the offence is stagnant, and the defensive structure is unraveling.

Now the whispers around the team have already shifted toward the long game — or more precisely, the 2026 NHL Draft and expected first-overall pick, Gavin McKenna. The potential of adding a franchise-changing forward is tempting, but - hypothetically speaking - what kind of environment would he be walking into?

That’s the real question for Calgary.

General Manager Craig Conroy made his intentions clear last season: this organization isn’t about shortcuts. It’s about competing, developing, and sustaining a culture that hates to lose. Tanking, at least philosophically, isn’t part of the plan. But with a 1-5-0 start and a minus-15 goal differential, the Flames look far from the kind of team that embodies that mindset.

Saturday’s 6–1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights was the latest example of their problems. Vegas dictated the pace, picked apart the Flames’ defensive coverage, and exposed just how disorganized Calgary has been in its own zone. Odd-man rushes, missed assignments, and poor coverage around the crease continue to hang goaltender Dustin Wolf out to dry.

Wolf, fresh off signing a seven-year deal, hasn’t been perfect — but the defensive breakdowns in front of him have made it nearly impossible to evaluate his play. For a goaltender expected to anchor the next era of Flames hockey, the lack of structure around him is concerning.

The path forward is murky. Calgary needs defensive stability, but trading a top-pair blueliner like Rasmus Andersson (as rumoured in the offseason) seems almost counterintuitive. Veterans such as Nazem Kadri or Blake Coleman could bring value back, but both are key dressing-room voices on a team already light on identity.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s been the effort from the fourth line— particularly Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka. Lomberg’s energy and willingness to step up physically, including his fight with Colton Sissons in response to an earlier hit on rookie Zayne Parekh, injected some spark. Klapka’s forechecking, fighting and physical presence have followed suit. However, when your fourth line is your best line, it’s a symptom of a bigger problem.

The schedule doesn’t get easier — two games against Winnipeg and a visit to Montreal loom. While it’s far too early for Conroy to make panic moves, the questions are starting to pile up faster than the answers.

If the Flames truly want to build a culture around competitiveness, it has to start showing up in the results. As tempting as the McKenna sweepstakes might be, culture and complacency don’t coexist — and right now, Calgary is teetering dangerously close to the wrong side of that equation.

Detroit Red Wings rookie forward Emmitt Finnie picked a good time to score his first goal in the NHL, only one game after his fellow rookie Axel Sandin-Pellikka did the same. 

Finnie buried a rebound of a shot by Jacob Bernard-Docker past Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner midway through the second period of Sunday afternoon's game for the milestone marker: 

EMMITT FINNIE FIRST CAREER GOAL! #LGRWpic.twitter.com/Ax4r4Ys3Qx

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 19, 2025

Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features. 

Immediately after the goal was scored, Red Wings team captain Dylan Larkin, who had just scored himself minutes earlier, retrieved the puck out of the net for a keepsake souvenir he'll keep for the rest of his life. 

The Red Wings drafted Finnie in the seventh round (201st overall) of the 2023 Draft, and he's quickly made a name for himself in his short time since making the team. 

Sandin-Pellikka also recently notched his first career goal, beating Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy with a quick wrist shot from near the top of the slot on Friday evening.

Finnie, Sandin-Pellikka, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård are all playing in their inaugural campaigns in the NHL as rookies thanks to their strong showings in Training Camp and the pre-season. 

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The Vancouver Canucks pulled together a gusty effort to take a 4–3 win against the Washington Capitals today, though this victory was not without worry, as Vancouver lost two players due to injury by the start of the second period. Elias Pettersson, Tyler Myers, Kiefer Sherwood, and Teddy Blueger scored for the Canucks, while Thatcher Demko made 29 saves on 32 shots faced in his fourth start of the season. 

After lots of chatter surrounding the play of Pettersson to start the season, it was the center who found the first tally of the game less than a minute into the first period. He fired a traditional seeing-eye shot past Charlie Lindgren to nab his first of the season. Pettersson finished the game with two shots and two timely blocks near the end of the third period. 

As a result of Brock Boeser’s absence, Vancouver shifted things around on their power play once again. In Boeser’s place was Sherwood, who got his first little bit of first-unit power play time of the season and made the most of it immediately. The forward honed in on the net at the perfect time, taking advantage of Washington’s poor penalty killing to start the season. 

Despite the excellent start to the game, things took a turn near the end of the first period when Tom Wilson took Filip Chytil out with a big hit. The center, whose injury issues have been well-documented throughout his career, had trouble getting off the ice and needed assistance from the training staff and teammate Conor Garland. While the hit was initially called as a major, the referees decided it was a “good hockey hit” and took the penalty away completely. Chytil was ruled out for the rest of the game.  

By the time the second period rolled around, the news kept getting worse. Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who came into the lineup for Boeser, was also taken out of the game. His ailment looked like it was sustained as the result of a hit from Matt Roy committed late in the first period. 

The rough stuff continued into the second period. Victor Mancini dropped the gloves with Brandon Duhaime, with both players feeding one-another big punches in an impressive effort for the young Canucks defenceman. Arshdeep Bains, part of the speedy Calder Cup line that has been fantastic at bringing pucks to the net, crashed into more than just the net today after he collided with Lindgren. 

Vancouver’s solid play was made even more notable considering their circumstances. Not only were they playing well when down to 10 forwards today, this was also their third game played in four days. For a team that’s been playing more often than not, especially at an early hour in pacific standard time, their early effort was notable. Players stepped up when needed and did well when taking on extra minutes. 

The third period was all Washington, with the home team controlling play more effectively in the o-zone than the Canucks. This included a brief stretch of o-zone time for the Capitals even during a Vancouver power play with around five minutes left in the third. Despite a full-sale push for the Capitals, including a late goal to cut their deficit to 4–3, Vancouver came up when they needed to and sealed their third straight win of the road trip. 

Stats and Facts: 

• With an assist on Kiefer Sherwood’s goal, Quinn Hughes extends personal point streak against the Capitals to five games 
• Quinn Hughes passes Thomas Gradin for sixth in career assists (354) scored by a Canuck 
• Tyler Myers scores his 100th career NHL goal 
• Conor Garland leads all forwards in TOI with 22:20 played 

Scoring Summary: 

1st Period: 

0:59 - VAN: Elias Pettersson (1) from Conor Garland 

17:11 - VAN: Tyler Myers (1) 

17:52 - VAN: Kiefer Sherwood (4) from Conor Garland and Quinn Hughes (PPG) 

2nd Period: 

4:54 - VAN: Teddy Blueger (1) from Evander Kane and Tyler Myers

13:42 - WSH: Ryan Leonard (2) from Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome (PPG) 

3rd Period: 

9:01 - WSH: Jakob Chychrun (2) from Hendrix Lapierre and Rasmus Sandin 

17:46 - WSH: John Carlson (1) from Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson 

Up Next: 

Vancouver’s next match of their road trip takes place on Tuesday, in what will be their fourth of five away from Rogers Arena. The Canucks will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in what will be their first time facing former goaltender Artūrs Šilovs since trading him back in July. Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 pm PT. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.

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The Ottawa Senators raised some eyebrows on Sunday morning with the announcement that backup goalie Leevi Meriläinen has been loaned to the AHL’s Belleville Senators. In a corresponding move, Mads Søgaard has been called up from the B-Sens.

At a glance, one might think the Senators had suddenly lost faith in Meriläinen, four days after he and the team were shelled in Buffalo on Wednesday night, falling 8–4 to the Sabres. But this probably isn't a demotion, not after only one game, and not after you see that Sogaard isn't off to a great start either. This is about getting Merilainen some real game action.

The Senators don’t have a back-to-back situation in their game schedule until October 27–28. The Sens will host Edmonton on Tuesday of this week, the Flyers on Thursday, then travel to Washington on Saturday before hosting the Boston Bruins a week from Monday. Barring injury, it's likely that Ullmark will start all of those games, including the one against his old team, then the Sens will probably turn to Meriläinen in Chicago on the 28th.

Travis Green After Senators 5-4 Loss To Islanders: 'A Lot Of Things We Took Pride In Last Year, We Weren't Good At Tonight'Sens head coach Travis Green: "It hurts that we didn't get a point tonight, and I think our game's a little sloppy right now."

In the meantime, the Senators want to get Meriläinen playing for two reasons. First, they don’t want him getting rusty from going almost two weeks without playing, and just as importantly, they don’t want him stewing too long about his difficult season debut in Buffalo.

Merilainen is starting for the B-Sens on Sunday afternoon when they host the Syracuse Crunch. They may also let him start again in Laval on Wednesday, and one of the two games against Toronto on Saturday and Sunday before bringing him back.

As for Søgaard, he recently cleared waivers after camp, so he's waiver-exempt for a couple of more weeks. In the meantime, the Sens just need him for practice and to wear the ball cap on the bench in Ottawa. Based on his two games so far in the AHL, his current .864 save percentage isn’t exactly a statistic that demanded an immediate call-up to the NHL.

So Meriläinen’s assignment to Belleville should not be regarded as a demotion, but instead as a much-needed tune-up – both physically and mentally.

More Sens headlines at the Hockey News Ottawa:
Senators Send Swedish Winger Down To The Minors on Friday
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Senators Suffer Discouraging 8-4 Loss At Buffalo
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An Early Glance At The Senators' Goaltending Pipeline

The Toronto Maple Leafs had to be concerned that the departure of Mitch Marner would result in an offensive dropoff this season, as they have been dependent on the “Core Four” group carrying the bulk of their scoring load for most of the last decade.

Through the first six games of the regular season, Toronto is third in the NHL with 22 goals, and part of that excellent production has been the play of defenseman Morgan Rielly. 

The longest tenured Maple Leaf had a difficult season adjusting to new head coach Craig Berube’s style of play last season.

Like he has in previous seasons, Rielly cycled through numerous D-partners until it was finally remedied when Leafs GM Brad Treliving acquired Brandon Carlo from the Boston Bruins at the trade deadline.

The right-handed Carlo provided a stable defensive presence for the offense-minded Rielly, who finished with a subpar 41 points last season. However, the 31-year-old did produce in the playoffs, scoring four goals and three assists for seven points.

Rielly’s defensive issues have always been a focal point of criticism, and that was highlighted in Game 7 of their second-round loss to the Florida Panthers when he put up a minus-three rating.

That led to off-season rumors that Treliving would try to get the veteran to waive his no-movement clause.

Instead, he spoke to Rielly after the season about needing more from him. That resulted in him coming to training camp in great shape, with a new attitude, and that has been displayed on the ice, as he appears less tentative and willing to jump into offensive situations. 

'My Goal Was To Leave No Stone Unturned': How Morgan Rielly's Summer Could Set Him Up For Success With Maple LeafsShortly after the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs/latest-news/maple-leafs-reveal-73-player-training-camp-roster-for-2025-26">Toronto Maple Leafs</a> were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in May, Morgan Rielly and general manager Brad Treliving sat down to review the year.

“I thought (Morgan) had a really good game, skated well, moved the puck well, good reads, defended well, he was solid," Berube told reporters after Rielly scored the game-winner against the Montreal Canadiens in the season opener.

"(It) was great to see him have a good game. (There was) a lot of good, and there’s stuff that we’ve got to work on, but we did a good enough job to win the game. I thought our third period was our best period, (we did a) good job protecting the lead, closing it out,” the Leafs' bench boss added.

His six points put him tied for third in the league among defensemen, behind Cale Makar and Shayne Gostisbehere.

Rielly's scoring includes goals against the Habs and on Saturday in a 4-3 overtime loss to the  Seattle Kraken. The biggest change for Rielly is his return to being the quarterback of Toronto's power play after Marner took the point of the team's five-forward power-play unit last season.

The unit with Rielly at the helm has struggled early in the year, going just two for 14, striking at 14.3 percent, which is tied for 24th best in the league.

The blueliner’s lack of a heavy shot from the point has always been a criticism, but in the past, he has made up for that with his excellent playmaking.

The effectiveness of the Leafs on the man advantage will be a significant factor in whether Toronto can have the same level of success they had with Marner in previous seasons and perhaps advance further than they did with him in the playoffs.  

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